Masks
by MrsB108
Summary: What he says and what's inside are two very different things. Events unfold after the season one finale. Bellamy/Clarke
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Bellamy cursed to himself as he climbed up the steep rocky mountain edge. His face was swollen and badly bruised and hurt much more than he had led Finn to believe.

Finn, who was climbing about ten feet behind Bellamy, had an ugly burn along his right side, starting at his forearm and worsening as it wormed its way up to the right side of his neck. Bellamy knew Finn was the reason he was even still alive, after that horrific grounder battle that had taken place at their camp site.

Bellamy had been receiving a deadly beating at the hands of a very large Grounder when Finn had come to his aid. Finn had distracted the grounder, giving Bellamy ample time to punch him hard and knock him back, before he and Finn barely limped away as the fiery inferno their friends had unleashed engulfed the enemy.

Finn had received his burn just as they were exiting the reach of the blaze and Bellamy had heard the sizzle of his skin as they threw themselves into some nearby brush. It was the last thing he remembered before he blacked out.

When he had awoken, Finn was lying next to him still, though unconscious; the visible scorch marks along his side still fresh.

Bellamy's head felt fuzzy and disoriented. Last he had remembered it was night and here now it was daylight. He gingerly put his fingertips to the throbbing areas of his face and hissed and grimaced as the pain intensified when he did. He placed his hands on the ground to rise and almost fell back down immediately due to dizziness and nausea.

"Finn," he said, attempting to rouse the motionless boy next to him. "Wake up, Finn."

Finn made no movement and Bellamy feared the worst. He dragged himself closer to the boy and put his fingers on his next, hesitant. His pulse was steady and Bellamy took a moment to look closer at the burn along his side, feeling pity and remorse remembering that Finn had helped him and had thus received such a nasty looking wound.

He sighed and attempted to stand again, much slower this time and the wave of nausea that hit him was much less intense. He put his hand on a nearby tree for support and squinted in the filtering sunlight through the leaves, surveying the area. He could see their ship of course but heard nothing, save the sounds of morning time on Earth from critters, birds, and the like.

He took another look at Finn and decided he could leave him for a moment to go see what had happened to everyone else.

He walked slowly with an unintended limp that he couldn't quite help. He wanted to call out for the others but something told him he'd better not. He reached the main camp site where he had been fighting with that Grounder and he was greeted with the vision of a mass grave. Dozens of skeletal remains, still smoking and littered with ash, flooded what had once been their camp.

He looked at them, elated that their plan had worked and yet panicked that the bodies were unidentifiable, hoping they belonged to no one he knew.

He looked around, remembering the last time he saw his friends. The drop ship had still been open and he knew most of them were inside waiting for the doors to close. Clarke had screamed out his name above the din, over and over again, but he couldn't look at her. The Grounder was too strong and he knew he would never make it to the ship. Looking at Clarke's face would have only made things worse and on the off chance he somehow conquered the Grounder, he needed all his concentration on escape from the flames.

The memories flooded back to him and he recalled his departure from his sister, Octavia. She had been badly injured and the lone friendly Grounder, Lincoln, had promised to take her to safety. How could he say no to that when they were probably all going to die here? If there was any chance that Lincoln could save her, he had to let him take it.

The drop ship was open now he noticed but from what he could tell, this place was empty; a true graveyard. He heard a weak cough from somewhere nearby and he whirled around in surprise, though he immediately regretted it. Nausea hit him so hard he would have thrown up on the spot had he had anything to eat in the last day or so. He closed his eyes and waited for it to stop; slowly inching his way over to the sound he'd heard. Had Finn awoken and made his way over? The cough sounded almost feminine he had thought.

There. He saw a body, moving slightly, half hidden under some debris. He reached his hand out slowly and coaxed the body over so he could see their face.

It was Anya, the leader of the Grounders who had tried to kill them. She was semi-conscious and babbling whispers that he could not make out. He felt a surge of anger upon seeing her face and with the uncertainty of where his friends were; he grabbed her clothes and put his face close to hers growling, "Where the hell are my friends you crazy bitch?"

She was not completely alert and still babbling words he didn't understand. One phrase he could make out, though it was one he had never heard before, filled him with a sense of unsettlement.

"Mountain Men."

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	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Mountain Men."

Who the hell were they? Grounders, Reapers, and now Mountain Men? How wrong the Ark and their people had been about the Earth.

Before Anya fully came to, Bellamy had retrieved some rope from the drop ship and bound her hands together, forming a sort of long leash that he used to drag her with him as he went to go back and check on Finn.

Finn, who was only very slightly rousing, groaned loudly, to which Bellamy attributed to the pain from his burn.

"Finn," Bellamy said "Time to get up."

Finn's eyes slowly sputtered open and Bellamy could see the slow remembrance and realization of all that had transpired pass through his eyes, finally ending with the searing pain in his arm and side. Finn sat up quickly and pressed his arm to his chest instinctively, looking down at it, horrified.

"Hey!" Bellamy said rudely, trying to get Finn's attention away from the pain. "I think our plan worked but everyone's gone. She was the only one left," he said, indicating with a thumbing gesture towards his makeshift prisoner. Her eyes were much more alert now, their shifty gaze filled with anger and disgust.

Finn slowly rose, using his left arm and prop himself up. "You okay?" he asked Bellamy, a worried look in his eyes as he took in Bellamy's beaten face.

"I'm fine," Bellamy said automatically. "Is there anything we can put on that?" he said, nodding towards Finn's burn.

"We need Clarke," Finn said, his voice heavy with the implication of several meanings behind that statement.

Bellamy nodded. He turned towards the captured Grounder and attempted to smile sarcastically. "You heard my friend, bitch. So you better start at the beginning."

It was hours later now and the unlikely trio was halfway up a mountainside; slowly, painstakingly making their way to the supposed lair of the Mountain Men, thanks to Anya's guidance and much to her chagrin.

She had told them a very short and succinct story about the Mountain Men. How they were the most advanced "tribe" on the planet, with their technology and gear, how they rarely came down from their resting place at the highest Mountain in the region, and that when they did they dominated everyone and everything in their path. How no one ever saw their faces, they always wore masks, and finally that if they ever took someone away that that person was never seen or heard from again.

Bellamy and Finn had both felt sick at this description. To think of all the people that survived, how advanced and mighty these Mountain Men must be to have taken all of their friends. And what would they even want them for?

Bellamy cleared his throat when she was done speaking and said matter-of-factly, "Well better get a move on then."

Finn looked at him, "To the mountain?"

Bellamy nodded and turned to Anya, who looked terrified for the first time ever. "Lead the way."

Finn and Bellamy had gathered what few supplies were salvageable and tucked them in a bag with a zipper which Finn strapped to his back while Bellamy double checked the leash he had secured for his prisoner.

They took off while it was still daylight, though making a sad amount of distance due to their injuries. Anya had indicated which mountain was the one they were looking for, but Bellamy was going to make damn sure it was the actual one, telling her she was going to "ring the damn doorbell herself." She ignored the remark that she couldn't understand and replied," I will take you but know that I am leading you to your deaths. And for nothing, since I am sure that all of your friends are now dead like mine."

Finn looked upset but Bellamy felt enraged. "This is your fault!" he sneered at the Grounder. "If you weren't such animals, such freaks, none of this had to happen!"

She scoffed and looked mortally offended. "You invade our lands, our territory and we are the animals? You have treated us the same as we have treated you. You are no better. You're people deserve everything that Mountain Men do to them."

Bellamy yanked on her leash hard, sending her to the ground in a sad heap. Finn moved forward hastily before Bellamy did anything worse. "Bellamy!"

He put a hand up towards Finn, indicating he understood and watched as Anya rose from the rocky terrain, dirt smearing her face that she spat angrily towards the ground. The defiance in her eyes was unwavering, he'd give her that.

It took them three days to reach the mountain top at their sad speed and Finn asked Anya how she knew where the entrance would be.

She replied, "Once when I was small, one of our elders was taken by the Mountain Men. The other tribesmen could not let this go unanswered and the followed the Mountain Men to fight them for his release. They followed them here, to this place, and found a door made of material that could not be penetrated. They called out the perpetrators for hours and hours but no one came. After two days, the Mountain Men emerged from the door and threw smoke at them, the color of the sun, much like they did to me and your tribe before they were taken. Those men were never heard from again. Only one dishonorable member of the tribe escaped the smoke and ran back to my people to tell the story. He told them what happened and they slit his throat for his cowardice."

Bellamy looked at Finn and said "A Grounder bedtime story. No wonder they grow up so insane." Finn gave him a look and they both focused their sights back on the looming last ridge of their journey.

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	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

As Bellamy and Finn scanned the mountain ridge, they saw a lone door made of what could have only been the impenetrable metal from Anya's story. It loomed high at about twenty feet and just as wide. There were no other discernible markings or inlets that the eye could see. Finn raised a silent finger and pointed out two small motion detector cameras that hung high on either side of the door.

There was a small path that led to and beyond the door that had been smoothed out and was more sand and dirt than rock. There was a sidelong curve past the door that led higher up the mountain to some unknown place that neither Bellamy nor Finn could see from this vantage point.

"Now what do we do?" Finn asked.

Bellamy looked at Anya for a long moment, his mind turning. He stepped forward to her, causing her to raise an eyebrow. He pulled a small pocketknife from his trousers and slit the ropes from her wrists, setting her free. She looked at him, then Finn, then back to him as she seemed to ponder if this was some sort of trap.

"We don't need you anymore. If I ever see your face again, it'll be the last time," Bellamy told her, meaning every word.

She smiled triumphantly and incredulously and took off before anyone could say another word, heading back down the mountain the way they had come.

Bellamy turned to Finn and gestured for him to turn to he could put the rope into the bag on Finn's back. Finn was smiling in an annoying sort of way so that Bellamy said after a moment, "What?"

"It's just funny," Finn said. "A couple of weeks ago you probably would have just killed her but now you're different. Now you're…..better."

Bellamy laughed defensively at first but looked away and knew that Finn was right. He knew why he was better too but shook the notion from his head as quickly as it had come.

"Yeah well we need to make a plan-," Bellamy started to say when a strange sound cut them off. It sounded like an engine but not one he could identify by sound. They both ducked accordingly as they could tell the noise was getting louder to their left, assuming someone or something was coming up the sandy path towards the door.

"It's a-a car, an automobile!" Finn exclaimed. A two door small jeep screeched up the pathway and careened the narrow curve past the door and up the unseen path, its camouflaged design barely visible in the fading daylight.

"Let's follow it," Bellamy decided.

"Are you sure that's the best plan?" Finn asked, staring at the still swirling dust left in its wake.

"It'll be dark soon and we can't just knock at the door. We need to at least see what's up there first," he said rising from their perch.

They waited only a moment before dashing across the pathway, steering clear of the view of the cameras and quickly plastering themselves against the rock wall along the path that led up.

The path wasn't as long as Bellamy thought it was going to be. It extended in a great curve probably a couple hundred feet or so and it plateaued to what could only be described as something he had only read of in books: something called cement, a gray hard substance coating the floor beneath their feet.

As they remained crouched down, they took stock of what they were looking at. Multiple automobiles were silent and still as they lined up in rows stretching a total count of twenty five. And beyond them was a great opening in to the mountain wall; a cave mouth spanning black that presumably would give them access to their friends. There were two men guarding the door, both of them wearing masks that were undeniably frightening. They reminded Bellamy of something from a nuclear holocaust movie he'd seen once as a child.

Bellamy's first thought was for them to take the guards on but then remembering Finn's arm he knew the sides were far from being even. No, they would have to be stealthy to gain entry. They would have to…..distract.

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